Puerta del Mar

The Centro de Interpretación de la Ría del Nalón “Puerta del Mar” is in San Juan de la Arena (L’Arena), in the municipality of Soto del Barco. It occupies the first floor of the Puerta del Mar building, the town’s former Casa del Mar, which also houses the Soto del Barco tourist office and the Consorcio Bajo Nalón, as well as a room for travelling exhibitions. It opened on 10 July 2010.

Its permanent exhibition explains the environmental values of the estuary and the ethnographic culture of the municipality. Much of it is devoted to the glass eel and its life cycle, together with other activities that drove the local economy, such as the fish canneries and the work of the carboneras, who gathered coal in the estuary. The building also has a viewpoint over the final stretch of the estuary.